Middlemore Home Children

Please note our index of Middlemore Home Children is currently being updated to provide additional information, including references and sources. We have reposted the original index until we begin adding the updates. The updates will be added by letter as each one is completed. If you have any questions in the meantime, contact us.

Between 1873 and 1936 more than 5,000 young immigrants, aged 2 to 18, mainly from the Birmingham, Warwickshire, England area, arrived in Canada under a program originated by John Throgmorton Middlemore (1844–1925).

Middlemore's child emigration program was neither the first, nor the largest, for Canada. However, it is unique in having made many of its internal records openly available on microfilm for family and social history studies. This website provides resources for Middlemore researchers.

Background

John T Middlemore, after gaining his medical degree in the USA and travelling in Canada in his early twenties, was shocked to see the condition of the poorest children in the city when he returned to Birmingham, England. He was especially struck with the difference between the filthy, crowded slums and the wide clean spaces in Canada. He could see the opportunities available for young people there.

In 1872 Middlemore opened a home for boys on St Luke's Road, Birmingham, and shortly afterwards a home for girls on nearby Spring Street. These two homes were known as the Children's Emigration Homes. The next year, in May, he brought 29 children from Liverpool to Quebec City, then on by train to Toronto, finding homes for them in Toronto and London, Ontario.

In the beginning, he used the Newsboys Lodgings in Toronto as a base of operations, but by 1874 had acquired use of Swart's Tavern on the outskirts of London and renamed it Guthrie Home. Guthrie Home remained the headquarters in Canada until 1890, when it was closed. Arrangements were made with Miss Macpherson to receive the Middlemore children at her home in Stratford in 1891 and 1892 and for their after-care until 1898.

In 1893 Mr. Middlemore switched his operations to the Maritimes, depending on local assistance, especially Miss Sterling and her Hillfoot Farm in the Annapolis Valley. The Fairview Home was opened in 1897. From then until 1932 most of the children were settled in the Maritime Provinces, except not in Nova Scotia after 1927.

It was about this time that child migration was reduced in Canada, and the Fairbridge Society was made responsible for the overseas placement of Middlemore children (among others). Most were taken to Australia. Since then the relatively few Middlemore children brought to Canada were taken to the Fairbridge Farm at Prince of Wales in British Columbia.

Sir John Throgmorton Middlemore

9 June 1844–17 October 1924

Parents:

William Middlemore and Mary Groom of Edgbaston (fourth son and tenth child)

Honours:

Created first baronet of Selly Oak, 27 May 1919

Education:

Edgbaston Propriety School

MD, Brunswick, Maine, USA

Occupations:

Worked in Middlemore and Lamplugh family saddlery and leather business (ca 1858–60)

Founder (in 1872), manager, and chief supporter of the Children’s Emigration Homes in Birmingham and the Middlemore Homes (Guthrie Home in London, Ontario, and Fairview Home in Halifax, Nova Scotia) in Canada

Member, Birmingham City Council 1883–1892

MP for Birmingham North, 1899–1918

JP For Birmingham and Worcestershire

Marriages:

Firstly, 25 September 1878, Marian (died 1879, probably in childbirth, a daughter was born 8 November 1879), daughter of Richard Bagnall, JP, of Worcester, at Severn Stoke, Worcester